


Take Care

by aces_low



Series: drabbles and ish [21]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 22:12:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13490850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Doc checks on Walt the day after Al Muwaffaqiyah





	Take Care

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt on tumblr for “Hey, have you seen the…? Oh.”

Tim has been looking for Fick everywhere. He figures Nate is probably over with XO, trapped in an endless loop of listening to Godfather drone on and on about pushing forward or stroking Schwetje’s barely comprehending ego.

Still, he continues through the platoon, checking on everyone and asking if they’ve seen the LT before moving on to the next.

When he rounds on Brad’s Humvee, he sees only one figure, huddled with the radio.

“Hey, have you seen the…? Oh.” He stops himself when he realizes it’s Hasser.

Walt’s head snaps up from where he’d been resting it against the steering wheel. His eyes are glassy, his skin is pallid, and his whole demeanor seems dulled. Which is saying a lot for someone who usually exudes light.

“I wasn’ asleep,” Walt assures him, his slight twang of an accent coming through stronger than normal.

“Maybe you should’ve been,” Tim suggests, taking the last few steps toward Walt.

Tim looks him over, trying to keep his eye critical. To his trained, unbiased, eye, Tim can say with certainty that Walt is tired and hungry and haunted. It’s not much of a stretch, they’re all tired and hungry, and some of them - at least more than others - are definitely haunted by the things they’ve seen out here.

“When’s the last time you slept, Hasser?” Tim asks, putting a finger up in front of Walt’s eyes. “Any blurred vision? Headaches?”

Walt shakes his head. “Brad made me sleep a couple hours last night. I’m seein’ fine. No headaches.”

“Did you sleep?” There’s a difference between being told to sleep and actually doing it. Especially after what happened yesterday.

“Tried to,” Walt offers. With anyone else, Tim would tell them to try harder or to stop being an asshole and take better care of themselves.

He’s never been great at saying things like that to Walt.

“Have you eaten?” he asks instead.

Walt nods. “Some.”

“How much is ‘some’?” Tim asks, pressing his thumb down against Walt’s wrist.

“It’s hard, most of the civ rats have peanut butter in them,” Walt tells him, he catches Tim’s eye and he finally sees some life behind them.

Tim scowls, he’s already informed everyone he possibly could of the need to get Bravo more food, as well as the importance of not having one of the men go into anaphylactic shock because the jackasses in charge couldn’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to not lose all of their supplies.

None of this would be as bad as it is if yesterday had never happened. Though, yesterday may have never happened if Walt hadn’t been starving and sleep deprived. Tim has half a mind to find Brad and chew him out for allowing Walt to get this bad.

But it wouldn’t change anything, and it wouldn’t erase that man from Walt’s memory.

Tim had tried, he really had. He’d tried to make it right, to put the man out of his misery instead of letting him die slowly and painfully, but he couldn’t, and now he can’t get that sound out of his head. He’s sure Walt can’t either.

It’s not right. Even before what happened yesterday, Tim has been seeing Walt smile less and less, has watched the wear of this war begin to show on him. It looks wrong on Walt.

This isn’t something Tim, as a medic, can fix. It’s also not something Tim, and just who he is as a person, can fix. If this was someone else, Tim would tell them to eat, sleep and get over it. But he’s tried that before and every time Walt had aimed his bright smile toward him Tim would be cowed and incapable of continuing any rant he’d been on. Now that Walt’s bright smile is gone, he’s still unable to lecture him. Now, Tim just feels sick.

“I’ll figure something out,” Tim finally says, and he will, even if it means taking everyone’s MRE’s and giving any of the ones that don’t come with peanuts somewhere in them to Walt and letting everyone else fight over the rest. He’s not above doing that, and he’s pretty sure he could get away with it.

To get Walt eating, it’d be worth it.

Walt looks up again to meet his eyes and there’s a small spark of something behind them that holds Tim’s gaze.

They’re startled from their stare-off by Brad’s approaching voice.

“Walt, good news, new MRE’s are in,” Brad says, as he rounds the humvee, Ray at his side, just as Tim takes a step back from where Walt is sitting.

“Hey Doc, come to check on our boy here?” Ray asks, ripping open his own MRE with his teeth.

Tim nods once and takes another step back, remembering now that he hadn’t actually come here for Walt.

“Walt, eat and fill this out,” Brad says, tossing Walt his own MRE and then handing him a clipboard with what Tim can only assume is the incident report for what happened yesterday.

Walt passes the radio to Brad before they trade places, Walt sliding past him to take a seat on the ground, setting his gun down along with his MRE.

“After you finish both I want you to sack out,” Brad says, giving Walt a look that tells him he’s not going to argue. A look that Tim wishes he was able to manage with Walt.

“And drink some water,” Tim finally adds as he starts making his way back away from Brad’s humvee. “I think you’re getting a little dehydrated.”

Walt looks up at him and nods and Brad does the same, a silent agreement that he’ll make sure Walt follows Tim’s orders.

Without another word, Tim turns and walks away, mentally beating his head over how he gets with Walt. He hopes that no one, especially Walt, ever notices.

As he walks back to his own humvee he passes Nate and Gunny Wynn without a thought. He’s forgotten what he needed the LT for anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
